Celebration
by FlamingSerpent
Summary: In Soul Society, the shinigami are celebrating the defeat of Aizen! Ichigo drinks a bit too much sake and gets drunk. What will he say? And do! Rukia takes him outside, so he won't act stupid. But, she does the more shocking thing. Ichiruki oneshot.


The windows of a pretty, white building let in a nice, evening breeze

The windows of a pretty, white building let in a nice, evening breeze. The outdoors were beautiful and serene. The full moon shone brightly in the dark skies, and glowing stars twinkled. Inside the building, though, was quite the opposite. People were shouting rambunctiously, laughing boisterously, and making a lot of noise, in general.

But, all the shinigami were happy. This was a celebration of sorts, in fact! Soul Society had finally defeated Aizen, and his army of Arrancar. All was at peace now.

"We did it!" some shinigami at a table shouted in jubilation.

"Yay!" some others yelled.

All the shinigami lifted their cups of sake up into the air. Captain Kyouraku cheered with sparkling eyes, and Captain Ukitake, beside him, smiled contentedly. All the shinigami drank the sake in unison.

Ichigo hesitated, since he had never had alcohol before, but he joined in anyways. After all, it was a celebration, and he didn't want to seem rude. Or weak for that matter. Almost all the shinigami in the Gotei 13 were there, except for a few. Zaraki Kenpachi and Yachiru weren't there, for one example. They were probably lost somewhere. And, Rukia wasn't there. Or, at least, she was running late.

Rukia ran up the stone-laid path to the building, and then pushed open the wooden door. Inside, it was bright and noisy. She sighed, relieved that no one noticed she showed up late. Everyone was chatting and laughing, and enjoying themselves. Rukia's eyes scanned the wide room, searching for Ichigo. Soon, she spotted him. His spiky, orange hair was hard to miss.

"Hey, Ichigo!" she hollered, running up to him. Then, she realized it. Ichigo was drunk. Yes, intoxicated, definitely.

His face was flushed pink, and his words were slurred and a bit drowsy-sounding. "…Hey… Rukia!" he mumbled. Renji was beside him, holding his shoulders and keeping him standing up straight.

"Uh…Rukia? He kind of had too much sake…" Renji explained with an apologetic look.

"I can see that," Rukia responded. She shook her head, and groaned. "Why didn't you stop him?"

"Well, he said that he could drink it if everyone else was, and well, I didn't want to stop him. He would probably argue with me, and you know what, it's a celebration tonight!" Renji replied with a grin.

"…Rukia… you…. Mmm… You look beautiful…" Ichigo murmured quietly.

Rukia barely heard Ichigo, but she did catch what he said. She felt herself heat up considerably, sending crimson to color her cheeks. _He's just drunk. He doesn't know what he's talking about… _Rukia reminded herself.

Renji laughed, and Rukia shot him a glare. "Help me get Ichigo outside! Before he does anything stupid," she commanded.

Renji nodded, and he and Rukia dragged Ichigo out the door, down the path, and plopped him in the soft, grassy courtyard. Ichigo slumped down onto the ground, and laid facing up. He groggily pointed at the stars, and muttered something under his breath about them.

Rukia motioned for Renji to leave as she said, "You can go back inside. Enjoy yourself."

"Are you staying out here?" Renji asked incredulously.

"Yes; what do you think? I'm going to leave Ichigo out here alone?"

Renji shrugged, and made his way back to the party building.

Rukia sat down next to Ichigo, and looked down upon him with her violet eyes.

Ichigo smiled lopsidedly and mumbled, "Ru…Ruki…ah?"

"Yes?" Rukia said patiently.

"Do…do you like me?"

"What?!" Rukia leaped up, now standing, in shock. "What kind of stupid question is that?!"

Ichigo babbled, "It's…it's a question. Any question is like…well, it like that. Hm… I was just wondering… You should answer. I just…asked…hm…that's it. I just wanted to…know… because…" Ichigo closed his eyes, and then seemed to fall asleep. Or faint. Rukia couldn't really tell.

Rukia waited a few moments, and once she was sure Ichigo was sound asleep, she whispered, "Yes, I do like you. I love you, Ichigo. More than you will ever know."

Rukia heaved a sigh, lying down beside Ichigo. She was glad she said that. Even if he didn't hear her, it was like a weight was lifted from her shoulders. She admitted her emotions, for real. It was out in the open now. It made her feel…stronger. Closing her eyes, Rukia soon fell asleep, drifting off to wherever her sweet dreams would take her.

As the celebration drew to a close, the shinigami started leaving. They all saw Rukia and Ichigo lying there, on the grass, but no one bothered to disturb them. Some people marveled or murmured to themselves.

"How romantic!" Hinamori commented with a little giggle. Captain Hitsugaya rolled his eyes. He obviously did not find lying on the grass very romantic.

Ukitake smiled, and marveled, "This is quite surprising!" He didn't expect Kuchiki Rukia to be lying there with Kurosaki Ichigo. In Ichigo's sleep, he draped his arm over Rukia, hugging her closer. Kyouraku muffled his laughter as he followed Ukitake down the path.

The sun started rising above the far horizon, the deep blue skies washed with a bit of vermillion and gold, along with lavender-pink. Rukia's eyelids fluttered open, and she was struggling to stand up, but then realized that Ichigo was hugging her tight, as if there were no tomorrow. Rukia pried his arm off of her body with as gentle a force as possible.

Ichigo seemed to be still fast asleep, his breathing deep and slow. Rukia brushed a loose strand of raven hair behind her ear, and then had an awkward, sudden urge to kiss Ichigo. She gasped, in shock at her own impulse.

"What's wrong with you?" she muttered to herself. But, she couldn't help but admit what she desired most was a kiss. It was embarrassingly true. She blushed scarlet as she decided, for herself, that she would kiss him.

_But he's probably not drunk anymore…_ Rukia thought nervously, butterflies fluttering, well, more like hacking away, at her stomach. _He's asleep. So he won't know a thing, _Rukia convinced herself. She took in a deep, slow breath, and then kneeled down on the dewy grass. She leaned down, and then planted a sweet kiss on Ichigo's lips. It lasted a few seconds, and her black hair tickled Ichigo's neck. She wished she could stay like that longer, but she pulled back, not wanting to wake up Ichigo.

_I did it. I actually did it. _Rukia was shocked at her own boldness, and she grinned joyously. She felt so happy, so light! Her heart beat rhythmically like a drum, and she felt as if energy suddenly flowed into her. "I love you…" Rukia whispered softly, and then snuggled back down in the grass to go back to sleep.

But… something else happened. Ichigo wasn't asleep. He was actually very well awake. Even though his head ached like hell, he was conscious, with his eyes shut. He felt a kiss, and forced himself to pretend to still be asleep, curious as to what would happen. He knew it was Rukia the moment he felt her lips against his, even though he had never kissed her before. It was intuition. And his intuition was proved right when she said, "I love you…"

Rukia had no idea Ichigo was awake, though. "I love you too…" Ichigo whispered. He didn't care if Rukia was awake, or already asleep. But, he said it. And that was all that mattered. This was definitely something to celebrate about.


End file.
